WE ARE MARRIED!!!!

Yup, can you believe it...it's actually happened.  AND YES WE HAVE PICTURES!!!!  

Friday February 14th:  Valentines Day

After considerable running around doing last minute errands, Rachel and I arrived at Elkhorn Ranch and met up with my parent in their cabin.  The three bedroom cabins at this place are great, and they had a fire going, drinks-a-brewing, and lots of momma Fisch baking to snack on.  By about 5:30 we all headed out to the main hotel for supper and within minutes Rachel's entire family arrived after their long flight from Hamilton (for most of them) and then the drive from Winnipeg.  This is quite a feat for Rachel's sister Dawne who is 8 months pregnant with a 4 year old daughter.  But they made it and survived.  

We enjoyed a decent supper in the private room of the lounge.  This room added some extra fun because we had a pool table, shuffleboard, and pinball games in the room.  Once dinner was done the gang went their own ways and a few of us ended up in the pool and hot tub for a relaxing dip.  Then it was back to the Fisch cabin for drinks, more snacks, and general socializing.  And everyone needed a little extra warming up because it was -38 Celcius Friday night....a little too cool for outdoor activities.

Oh yeah, it was between dinner and the pool that I was in a bit of a hurry to get back to the cabin and get changed that I missed the turnoff to the Fisch cabin and ended up off the road with my car stuck in the trees.  Dad and Steve were nice enough to help me get out (along with a tow rope and a friendly passerby with a 4 wheel drive truck!!!).  Now.....there are no pictures of this event....so once this web page disappears, I'll deny any of this ever happened   :)

Saturday February 15th:  The Day of Reckoning

Well, after a night of sleep that was less than satisfying, we had both families over to the Fisch cabin for a big breakfast.  Dad was the chef du jour and did a great job of bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausages......ugh...I'm getting full just thinking about it again.  

Rachel, her sisters, Debbie and Joanne managed to get into the banquet room earlier than expected and got the decorating done and out of the way much earlier than we expected.  Of course, I stayed away from this knowing what happens to men when they try to stick their noses into decorating for a wedding.  I thought that it would be in my best interests to survive until the ceremony, so I stayed at the cabin.

Of course no wedding is complete without a few shinanegans as well.  So while I was sitting in the jacuzzi trying to relax, some gnomes from the forest got their dirty little hands on my car keys and managed to wrap my entire car in a roll of clear plastic garbage bags, put peanut butter on the door handles, fill my car with newspapers, and take every piece of garbage in my car and stick them under my windshield wipers.  Oh yea, the lipstick on all the windows of the car saying "just married" was a nice touch too.  

So we'll jump ahead to 4pm.  I'm back at the Fisch cabin starting to get ready for the 5pm ceremony (I'm a man, I really only need about 15 minutes, but I thought I'd play it safe and get ready early).  About this time, the power goes off in the cabin....only our cabin.  My sister Karen and sister in law Debbie are running around with wet hair wondering what to do without blow dryers, no one is dressed yet....and still no power.  After about 20 minutes the power (and peace) is restored.   

I'm at the banquet room by 4:50 and meet up with the photographer and help things get organized.  By 4:55 Rachel's family arrives, and by 5:05 Rachel arrives and waits for her queue to enter the room.

We make sure everyone is seated, and then Steve starts to play his guitar to play us into the room.  At this point, my brother Kirby lets Rachel know that we are ready and then takes his seat.  The next couple of minutes were just Rachel's and mine.  While everyone waited we met behind a little divider wall and shared a minute and a prayer together.  We took a deep breath and reminded each other how much we loved each other and that today was OURS!

We took our 1 minute walk up the aisle and met with Rachel's brother in law Blake at the fireplace and the ceremony was under way.  The entire ceremony lasted about 20 minutes, and we have to pass a lot of thanks on to Blake for a wonderful ceremony.  His words, prayers and sentiments were exactly what we were hoping for and in many ways more than we could ever have expected.  HIS ceremony helped make this special day even that much better.  The ceremony included well wishes and comments from some of my old friends like Matt Smith (yes, Matt....window open....I have to admit you were right), Rob and Alice Brooks (there's nothing wrong with being a Jeff Gordon fan!), and Rachel's old boss and our good friend Don Craig (and his wife and new baby of course!!!).   Hearing words from some of our friends meant so much to us during the ceremony.  If any of you read this....thank you very much...even though you weren't present at the wedding, your "prescence" meant the world to us.

Blake even managed to work my niece Karina and Rachel's niece Laura into the ceremony by bringing up a piece of both Rachel and my history that turned out to be a common history that neither of us were aware of.  Being able to included Karina and Laura in the wedding was very special to us and creates a stronger bond with these kids forever....and they did a great job playing their parts like real pro's.

Then came the vows.  Well, we both wrote our own vows (in fact I was still working on mine about 4 hours before the wedding).   And neither of us made it through our vows without some level of tears, sniffling, snorting and general bawling......and that was just the members of the families!!!  :)   Actually, it's true, we both got a little choked up when it came time to recite our vows, but I know that I've counted my blessing a thousand times since Rachel and I have become a couple, and this day was the day everyone dreams of....discovering the love that you've always wanted and being able to marry her and commit to spending the rest of your life with her.  It was the greatest moment of my life.

At this time we were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Fisch (that sounded really cool!) and we smooched and were off to the lobby for the pictures.

It was a quick hour of photography, but Barry our photographer took control and did a great job.  He worked through a stack of family pictures within 1 hour so that we could make it back to the banquet room for dinner.  No major issues except for a crying and tired 6 month old baby Jenna, but who can blame her!  All that noise, all those people, and not many of them paying attention to her for at least an hour!!  :)

Then it was down for dinner, a bit of wine, and a few family stories, jokes, and so on.  Dad did a wonderful toast welcoming Rachel to the family of Fisch's, and Rachel's dad Bruce did a great job welcoming me to the Leaney's.  Later in the dinner, we convinced Steve to pull out the guitar and sing a little for us, and Rachel's mom even convinced Rachel to sing along for a song.  After which Rachel did a little solo of "when you say nothing at all".....the first song she ever sang for me, and still a song (and the sound of her voice) which moves me to the core when she sings it.  That topped the evening off for me.

Shortly after this, and a few more pictures, Rachel and I ran away to our King Suite which I had decked out with a truckload of Ferraro Rocher chocolates and almost 20 candles and rose petals.  We settled into the room after all the activity and stress of the day and were finally able to relax for a while.  Then we watched tv, did crossword puzzles, and went to bed early  nudge, nudge, wink, wink   :)

Sunday

We all met at the lounge for a big family brunch and parted ways around 12:30 in the afternoon.  Rachel's family came back to Brandon with us to see the town and where we live.  We sat and had tea and hot chocolate for about an hour and then they had to depart for Winnipeg to get on their ways back home.

THANK-YOU's

Blake Corkill (Rachel's brother-in-law) for performing the ceremony

Colin Fisch (my brother) for serving as the officiate to make sure it's all legal

Thanks to our parents.  To my mom and dad for being gracious hosts with tons of food, snacks, beverages (adult and otherwise), and for being my biggest supporters for all these years.  They were wonderful hosts all weekend making sure that no one went hungry, thirsty, or was without a warm fire in a friendly environment.  I also have to thank Dad for helping get my car out of the trees   :)

To Bruce and Doreen Leaney, Rachel's parents for making the long trip from Calgary.  Especially Doreen after her recent surgery.   We know you weren't always the most comfortable this weekend, but you never really let on.  Thank you both for your support.

To Beth Leaney for being so much help to Rachel in her preparations before the wedding.  For all the trips back to the cabin for things Rachel forgot :).  And for helping keep Rachel sane on Saturday.

To Dawne....8 months pregnant and a 4 year old in tow....and smiling most of the time.  The trip couldn't have been the most comfortable for you, so thank you thank you thank you.  The next time we see you, you'll have your new baby, and we can't wait.

Julie Puhach and Wilhelmina Welburn (our Grandmothers) for being our witnesses....thank you for taking part in this very important event in our lives.  It seems like good luck to us to have two very vibrant, active, energetic 80 year olds act as our witnesses.  Maybe your longevity will rub off on Rachel and I, and we can celebrate our 80th birthdays together many years from now.

To my brothers and sister, and their families.  Thanks for all the help getting us to Brandon to start with, and then all the support once we got here.  And especially to Joanne for all the free haircuts and all the work she put in to getting a hairstyle that Rachel liked.  That took more than a few hours to get that figured out, and it looked great!!!  To Steve for playing the guitar and singing at the wedding and at dinner.  We never get tired of that!  To Colin and Debbie, for all of your support and positive thinking in the weeks leading up to this day, and for Colin for acting as our officiate.  I really have to say, that aside from joining Rachel's and my lives together, the biggest memory from this weekend will be having all the family together working to make this weekend successful.  To see Kirby waiting to tell Rachel to come in to the room (kinda taking control as a big brother should), to hear Colin introduce us as Mr. and Mrs. Brian Fisch (legally), and to have my little sister Karen there all weekend...laughing and joking....and teasing me about writing my vows the morning of the ceremony......it's the family that I remember, that I love, and that means so much to me.

And finally we need to thank the Lord for bringing Rachel and I together and keeping us strong and united through the past two years.  He blessed us with a wonderful weekend with no major problems, and with safe travel for all of the family.   We pray that he continues to bless us and all of our family and friends in the future.

Marriage...it's a good thing...try it sometime  :)